In the three Hunger Games books, President Coriolanus Snow is an evil villain. He’s behind watching children kill each other, keeps his 12 districts of Panem as slave labor to serve the capital and is a complete tyrant. But author Suzanne Collins has decided to make him a young good guy in her new prequel and fans are NOT down with it. She announced plans for the book in Oct. 2019, but didn’t say who it would revolve around. Now that the word is out, fans are not down with it.
The events in the book take place 64 years before the events in the original The Hunger Games, when Snow was just a teenager and long before the trilogy’s protagonist Katniss Everdeen was born. The first excerpt from The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes has been released to Entertainment Weekly, which describes Snow in the new prequel as: “A teen born to privilege but searching for something more, a far cry from the man we know he will become. Here he’s friendly. He’s charming. For now he’s a hero.” In the four blockbuster films based around the books, antagonist Snow was played by actor Donald Sutherland, 84, opposite Jennifer Lawrence‘s Katniss.
The book takes place 10 years after the founding of the Hunger Games, which came as a punishment to the defeated 12 districts’ rebellion. A teenage Snow is assigned as a mentor to a girl from District 12 in, the poorest one of all with the smallest chance at victory in the deadly games. So in other words, he’s the original Haymitch to Katniss (another District 12 Tribute). Though unlike Hamish, he never had to fight in the games.
Fans are NOT on board with knowing Snow’s backstory after he was such an evil dictator in the original trilogy. Twitter user @evil4life10 wrote, “Literally who asked for this? Out of all the stories to tell Snow’s is one no one is interested in.” A woman named Peggy tweeted, “the sheer nerve of the hunger games preque being about president snow when haymitch was RIGHT THERE … disappointed but not surprised.” Fan Oscar wrote, “was so hyped for the hunger games only to find out it’s about that tyrannical president snow… imagine how tired we are.”
Characters from the hunger games I’d rather read a prequel about over president snow:
-Haymitch
-Finnick
-Cinna
-Johanna
-Beetee
-Annie
-Effie
-Katniss’s Dad
-Caesar Flickerman
-President Coin
-Tribute Boy From District 6
-Buttercup
-A turkey Gale shot— k 🐝 (@kristineholland) January 21, 2020
Even YA author Aiden Thomas is pissed off that the prequel will be about Snow.
i couldn’t be more disappointed by the next HUNGER GAMES being about fucking President Snow and trying to paint him as a “misunderstood hero” are you kidding me.
the very last thing i’m interested in is humanizing a fascist dictator because he has a ~tragic past~. 🤮🤮🤮🤮
— Aiden Thomas (@aidenschmaiden) January 21, 2020
User Dom tweeted, “Imma level with y’all: ‘The child murdering dictator was quite nice actually’ Is not a take I feel the world needs to hear right now.” A person with the handle KAV added, “finding out the hunger games prequel is going to humanize snow PISSES ME OFF. THG is a stellar trilogy that confronts issues of classism + colonization, but it’s impact will be RUINED by yet another fucking book humanizing a cruel white man. is this REALLY the story we need?” Readers will get their chance to decide whether or not they want to know Snow’s backstory when The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is released on May 19